Darden Towe Park committee to get updates on pickleball courts, Free Bridge Lane, and more

Albemarle and Charlottesville are two separate entities as Virginia law makes a firm distinction between city and county.

Yet there are several regional entities in which the two localities belong such as the Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization and the two Rivanna authorities. There’s also the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission.

Another regional body is a joint committee that oversees activities happening in Darden-Towe Memorial Park, a 113-acre tract of land owned by both Albemarle and Charlottesville. This group meets at 5 p.m. in the Room 235 of the county’s office building at 401 McIntire Road. (meeting info)

“The expenses of operating the park are shared by the City (30.57 percent) and the County (69.43 percent) based on the regional agreement and most recent population data available at the time of developing the recommended budget,” reads Albemarle’s budget. “The actual funding shares will be based upon the updated population report from the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.”

How will Charlottesville losing over 6,000 people on paper affect that ratio? Here’s a recent story.

The city’s representatives are City Councilor Jen Fleisher and City Councilor Lloyd Snook. The county’s representatives are Supervisor Ned Gallaway and Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley.

The Albemarle Parks Foundation has been very active in reshaping the future of Darden Towe and many of their initiatives are on the agenda. These include conversion of the tennis courts for pickleball, the closure of Free Bridge Lane to traffic, and extension of the Old Mills Trail.

The first item is an update on the Foundation’s fundraising efforts for the conversion of the tennis court at Darden Towe for pickleball. In early Albemarle County sought input on whether this should happen and 730 people participated in a survey on Engage Albemarle. In March 2025, the Darden Towe Committee agreed to make the conversion.

The second item is an update on the conversion of Free Bridge Lane to a car-free promenade. On April 15, Albemarle Supervisors adopted a resolution formally asking the Commonwealth Transportation Board to revoke roadway status as I reported for C-Ville Weekly.

The third item is an update on Old Mills Trail further along the Rivanna Trail. Albemarle staff have filed for a grant from the Virginia Recreation Trails Program for this project.

“Board approval is not required for this grant application, but County Executive approval is a policy requirement for all grant applications regardless of Board action, and that approval is facilitated through the County’s Office of Grants & Agreements,” said Abbey Stumpf, the county’s director of communications and public engagement in an email on May 11, 2026.

The next update is an update on capital projects underway at Darden Towe. This includes replacing the irrigation system for the three softball fields, installation of restrooms compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the rebuilding of grass athletic fields.

According to the most recent quarterly report of the Department of Facilities and Environmental Services, work is moving ahead on replacing the fourth and final field this summer.

“The overall project continues to advance approximately one year ahead of the original schedule and remains well within the approved budget parameters,” reads the report.

The final scheduled item will be a discussion of capital items in FY2027.

Before you move on: Thank you for reading this story about an upcoming meeting in local government. This is the sort of article that fits the mission of Town Crier Productions, a mission to increase awareness about how government works by looking up close at what happens at meetings. This story comes from a Week Ahead edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement published on May 31, 2026.